Adaptation · written by Charlie Kaufman and Donald Kaufman · 2002

Laroche’s crew saws orchid-bearing branches and stuffs the flowers into pillowcases.

Scene 14 of 202 · ≈ 1 min on screen · Act one

Act oneAct twoAct three

Begins 9 min into a 1:57 film

The story so farBefore scene 14

Unable to find a conventional story in The Orchid Thief, screenwriter Charlie Kaufman turns his own crisis into an increasingly self-referential adaptation.

Scenes 1–9
Charlie inhabits an isolated, self-condemning world while Orlean’s book supplies a distant model of obsession.
Scene 10
Valerie and Margaret give Charlie the assignment to adapt The Orchid Thief.
Just before
Scene 11
Laroche finds a ghost orchid, names it reverently, then orders Russell to cut its tree.
Scene 12
Charlie tells Valerie that adapting someone else’s work could make him see the world differently.
Scene 13
As a boy, Laroche chooses a turtle after his mother calls the choice spiritually significant.
Scene 14
This scene

14EXT. SWAMP - MORNING

As Laroche supervises, Randy, Russell, and Vinson saw through tree branches supporting lovely flowering orchids. They unceremoniously stuff the flowers into bulging pillowcases.